missy elliot
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Busta Rhymes has been an electrifying force in Hip-Hop since before many of today’s rappers were born. Last month, the Brooklyn bred emcee took home the 2023 BET Awards biggest honor as this year’s Lifetime Achievement recipient.
Some of music’s greatest talents, including Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Diddy paid homage to the 12-time Grammy Award nominated rapper in a heartwarming video. Fans took to Twitter to share their favorite Busta Rhymes moments while reiterating that a Lifetime Achievement Award was overdue for the “mayor of Hip Hop.”
Busta’s award sparked an even bigger conversation about other icons whose contributions in Hip-Hop have seemingly gone unnoticed. Check out our list of Hip-Hop legends who deserve their flowers while they can smell them.
Ludacris
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Before rappers like Big Sean and DaBaby captivated fans with their animated delivery, wild punchlines and humorous videos, Ludacris had the game on lock. His major label debut album Back for the First Time, spawned several hit records that many fans deem to be instant classics — including the Neptunes- produced track “What’s Your Fantasy.”
While Atlanta was still finding their identity in Hip-Hop, Luda continued cranking out chart topping records and big budget music videos throughout the 2000s. But after years of hard work and a Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2007 for Release Therapy, he started to feel that his contributions to Hip-Hop weren’t being acknowledged. In May 2023, Luda appeared on the All The Smoke podcast and revealed that Jay-Z credited his outlandish videos as the reason why Luda doesn’t receive the lyrical credit he deserves. “People ask me, ‘Why don’t you think [you] get the credit?’ Because I played too goddamn much…And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Luda said.
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Missy Elliott has had a very successful music career, but along that journey, she has dealt with mental health issues, and now she is opening up about having to overcome them.
Spotted on HipHopDX, the “Work It” crafter spoke about dealing with depression and anxiety and how it can hit anyone in a very candid conversation as part of her cover story with Essence.
Per HipHopDX’s reporting:
“Now I’m fine with being like, ‘Hey, I got anxiety’ or ‘I went through depression,’” the Grammy Award-winning artist said. “Even the biggest artist, or just the regular everyday working person, we all go through shit. We all do. And it’s okay to say, ‘Hey, I’m not okay today.’ Probably we would keep a lot of people around if we were that open because we would be able to uplift each other.”
“We’d know that I’m not going to look at you crazy if you say, ‘Hey, I’m having a rough day.’ Maybe you’re thinking things that you shouldn’t think, or whatever the case may be.”
Elliott details an encounter with a peer that helped her out.
“I had a peer of mine say, ‘Hey, look, I’ve been through the same thing.’ And he was just like, ‘Next time I see you, I’m going to put a mirror in front of your face, so you can remember who you are and all that you’ve done.’”
This is not the first time Elliott has spoken about her mental health struggles. In a November 2019 interview with Billboard, she touched on them, detailing how her anxiety began during childhood.
Missy Elliott’s Recent Wins
Just recently, Missy Elliott made history by becoming the first female Hip-Hop star to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In an Instagram post, she said receiving the honor was not just “huge” for her, and it now opens the doors for all of the other women in Hip-Hop.
Shoutout to Missy Elliott for being so open about her mental health struggles.
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It feels like with every passing generation of Hip-Hoppers, the OG’s always say “rap isn’t what it used to be” as new artists take the game to different levels. In tonight’s episode of Uncensored, Lil Wayne will be touching on the current state of the rap game and how it differs from when he reigned supreme.
In a brand new clip for TV One’s Uncensored series, as spotted on NewsOne, Lil Wayne sits down with another iconic Hip-Hop artist, Missy Elliott, and in it explains how different and more difficult it was for a music artist to break out during his heyday than it is today.
“Where it’s at today… it makes me appreciate who I am and the time I came in and how different it was and how harder it was when I came. Therefore, all those today, they respect and also understand it’s nowhere near as difficult as it was and hopefully they respect it… It shows that I come from a different time.”
He’s not lying. Spending more than two decades in the rap game, Weezy has seen the game go from artists begging record executives to release their material to artists simply putting a song online and watching it go viral overnight without the help of anyone in an office.
Check out some clips of Lil Wayne’s interview with Missy below, and let us know if you’ll be checking for the season finale of UNCENSORED in the comments section below.
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